This invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling page cost in an image-rendering device. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and technique that facilitates the limitation of page costs of color documents by establishing a threshold cost limitation and controlling the colorant amounts to be used on the page to ensure that the cost limitation is met.
While the invention is particularly directed to the art of controlling cost for rendering color images on pages, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the invention may have usefulness in other fields and applications. For example, the invention may be used in any image-rendering situation where the costs of different types of ink or other rendering materials that are used vary.
By way of background, it is typical that the cost of printing a page having color images thereon is more expensive than printing the same page in black and white. While the causes of this discrepancy may vary from system to system, the primary contributor to the increased cost of a color page is the higher cost of color materials (e.g. various color inks) as compared to materials used (e.g. black ink) to print in black and white. The practical impact of the higher cost of printing color pages is that less color pages are printed. This, of course, has the disadvantage that many rendered images are not properly printed in color, as may have been intended. Still further, generating color images may be avoided altogether in document preparation to avoid higher costs in printing or copying the document(s).
As such, it would be advantageous to have a system that could print pages that fall within threshold cost constraints but still allows the printing of color pages to occur such that at least some amount of color is rendered on the page.
The present invention contemplates a new method and apparatus for controlling page cost in an image-rendering device that resolves the above-referenced difficulties and others.